


a rose by any other name would smell as sweet (ayyy, you wanna make some sweet cross pollination with me?)

by driedupwishes



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Flowers, M/M, early relationship stage fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-17
Updated: 2015-04-17
Packaged: 2018-03-23 08:00:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3760708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/driedupwishes/pseuds/driedupwishes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Hey,” he said, voice catching when Eren pushed up into his touch and sighed. “Hey, idiot, wake up. I’m here.”</p><p>Eren moaned, this low delicious sound that made Levi lean against the back of the couch as his knees went weak. His eyelashes fluttered even more as he woke up, showing slivers of green before he opened his eyes completely, blinking up at Levi as his mind sluggishly woke up. Levi caught himself smiling stupidly down at him and couldn’t stop.</p><p>“Hey,” he said again, still bent over the back of the couch because – shit – Eren was <i>gorgeous.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	a rose by any other name would smell as sweet (ayyy, you wanna make some sweet cross pollination with me?)

“Eren,” Levi shouted. He couldn’t believe the idiot wasn’t answering his door. He was here, on time, but his goddamn boyfriend apparently _wasn’t_ , since he’d been banging on the door for ten fucking minutes with no answer. “ _Eren Jaeger, open this fucking door right now._ ”

Nothing.

It was beginning to make him worry, to be honest. At first he’d been mad, but slowly that anger was melting into fear, because Eren had a bad habit of doing _really fucking dumb_ shit, like leaving his window ajar or picking fights where terrifyingly large angry men yelled _we’ll get you later, Jaeger_ as someone dragged them away (no joke, their first date had been interesting). And Eren had said he would answered the door, especially since Levi had told him earlier that he was planning on coming over, which meant-

There had to be a reason Eren wasn’t answering the door.

Levi gritted his teeth and tried not to imagine that the reason was because he was hurt – or worse, dead – but the images rose unbidden. He clenched his fingers, feeling the stems of the flowers in the bouquet in his hand crumple. He glanced down, self-conscious, chest tight at the sight of the battered flowers. He’d picked them up on the way over as a whim, since his route from the store had put him past the flower shop. The poor lilies weren’t faring well, especially after all the banging on the door, and the roses looked bruised, even to Levi, who knew nothing about flowers. He sighed, feeling his shoulders slump as defeat crawled up his spine.

“So, are you done banging or…”

Levi whirled at the sound of the voice, spotting the small blonde sticking her head out of the next apartment door. She was shorter than he was, hair in a neat bun and eyes a shadowed by her bangs, and she leaned against her doorway with a cock of her hip that Levi knew meant she had fighting training somewhere in her history.

“Who the fuck are you,” Levi asked, fingers still clenching around the flowers. The girl didn’t seem to mind, rolling her shoulders in a little useless shrug.

“Annie,” she answered easily. “Eren’s neighbor. And you’re…”

“Levi,” he spat between gritted teeth. The images in his head were getting worse, Eren gone, Eren beaten, Eren bleeding and unconscious on the fucking floor barely ten feet away kept away from him by a fucking _door_ …

“That’s what I thought,” Annie said, blinking slightly. “Have you guys been fighting?”

Levi sputtered at the stupid question. They’d barely been dating two weeks, who the fuck had time for fighting in _two goddamn weeks_. Though, if he was being fair, he was banging on an unanswered door, shouting at Eren with a bunch of fucking flowers in his hand, so he supposed it didn’t look good. He swallowed back a groan and shook his head.

“He texted me on my way over,” Levi explained, “but when I got here he wouldn’t answer. Do you know if he left? He’s not answering his phone either…”

Annie smiled at that, lopsided and small. “Oh,” she said, sounding faintly amused. “He probably fell asleep.”

Levi blinked. “Fell asleep?”

She nodded. “Yep. Eren goes to sleep sometimes and doesn’t wake up for anything. I hear Jean and Armin trying to wake him up through the walls sometimes, but nothing works. That’s probably what happened.”

Levi wasn’t sure if he believed that, especially with his own imagination running rampant. “Well how the fuck do I wake him up from out here,” he asked, gesturing with the flowers in his impatience. Annie’s smile grew, curling into something of a smirk before she pushed off the wall.

“You aren’t scared of heights, are you,” she asked, turning to reenter her apartment. Levi blinked at her back, feeling a little twist in his gut that felt like dread.

“No,” he answered defiantly. It was true, he wasn’t scared of heights, but that didn’t mean he liked where this was going.

“Then c’mere,” she called, already disappearing past her open doorway. Levi glanced back at Eren’s door, but if ten minutes of banging and shouting hadn’t pull an answer out of him he hardly doubted one last knock would. He followed the girl with a sigh.

Annie lead him through her apartment, which was neat but not too clean, with folded shirts on the back of the couch and evidence of a cat somewhere nearby. She walked across the living room, padding on bare feet to the sliding glass door of the balcony, and then slid it open and stepped out without a word.

Levi knew where this was going without an explanation and it must of showed on his face, because the girl didn’t give him one. She just gestured at the balcony next to hers, only a few feet of distance between them, like they weren’t ten stories up.

“He doesn’t lock the balcony door,” she explained. At Levi’s look she elaborated, smiling even more as she said, “Jean gets locked out sometimes and has to make the jump. He’s found that if you stand on the railing nearest to the wall it wobbles the least.”

Levi hadn’t met Jean yet – it was his first time coming to Eren’s damn apartment and he was horrified at how terribly this was going – but he would still have paid money to see the guy make this jump. It was even freaking him out, faintly, in the back of his head where a voice was chanting _no dick is worth this_ in a voice that sounded strangely like Farlan.

But, the thing was, Eren was worth this. Levi’d known him only a month and a half, through a random meeting on the subway that had ended in a fist fight – not between him and Eren, but between some asshat harassing girls and Eren, that Levi had butted in on because Eren was cute and funny and passionate, but he was absolute shit at winning fights – but he was definitely worth the chance of falling to his death. Especially if his smile when Levi handed him the flowers was anything like it was in his imagination.

“Hold these,” Levi muttered, shoving the flowers in the direction of Annie. She took them, looking bemused, and he took a deep breath before heaving himself up on the balcony railing, by the side of the wall like she had suggested. It wobbled, but he didn’t dwell on it, stepping forward across the few feet of empty space onto the railing of the other balcony. He hopped down almost immediately, heart racing, and turned back to find the girl draped over the edge of her railing looking faintly impressed.

“Good luck, Romeo,” she muttered, twisting to reenter her apartment without further pause. “And do me and favor and keep it down; these walls really are too fucking thin, alright.”

Levi tried not to turn pink at the insulation in her words. They’d barely been dating two weeks! They’ve gone on three days! And she thought they were just going to-

He took a deep breath and tried not to imagine how Eren would look, flushed and panting and wrecked beneath him. Not because it was a terrible idea, but because he was trying to do this right, trying to _woo_ Eren, and that meant taking things slow. For now.

Which was exactly why he was breaking into his apartment.

Yeah, Levi wasn’t quite sure he was cut out to woo anyone, but he hoped it was the thought that counted. He pulled at the sliding glass door, finding it unlocked, and entered into Eren’s apartment, only to draw short in surprise.

It was clean. Like, really clean. Like, really clean in the way that bespoke of someone scrubbing every inch of it very, very recently. He could still see the cleaner bottles on the kitchen counter and the rags on the coffee table. Plus everything smelled like disinfectant, which meant-

Eren had cleaned for him before promptly passing out.

Levi felt his heart swell in his chest as his eyes drifted across the room and found Eren’s form on his couch.

“Eren,” he called quietly, knowing that it probably wouldn’t wake him but feeling the name slip out of his mouth nonetheless. He stepped forward, eying the long line of Eren’s legs in his dark jeans, musing momentarily over the strip of skin peeking out between his shirt – black and tight and gorgeous on him, riding up on his stomach with the way his arms were flung over his head – and his pants. There was the faintest edge of his underwear visible, enough to make Levi’s mind wander, and he jerked his eyes back up to Eren’s face with a stuttering flush.

Eren’s face was peaceful in sleep, smooth and gorgeous, with fluttering eyelashes and plump lips and- Levi wanted to kiss him. Levi really, really wanted to kiss him. But kissing people in any stage of dating them while they were asleep was creepy, especially if it hadn’t been consented to beforehand. So Levi bit back the urge and stepped forward, conscious of the crumpled battered flowers in his hands as he reached out over the back of the couch to shake Eren’s shoulder.

“Hey,” he said, voice catching when Eren pushed up into his touch and sighed. “Hey, idiot, wake up. I’m here.”

Eren moaned, this low delicious sound that made Levi lean against the back of the couch as his knees went weak. His eyelashes fluttered even more as he woke up, showing slivers of green before he opened his eyes completely, blinking up at Levi as his mind sluggishly woke up. Levi caught himself smiling stupidly down at him and couldn’t stop.

“Hey,” he said again, still bent over the back of the couch because – _shit_ – Eren was gorgeous.

“Hey,” Eren answered, voice sleep rough and yeah, Levi was fucked. Levi was fucked so bad for this guy it wasn’t even funny. “You- I-“ Eren blinked before it seemed to hit him, his cheeks going pink as he struggled to sit up as fast as possible, sheepish and embarrassed. “Shit, I fell asleep!”

Levi shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal, like his hands didn’t hurt from banging on the wooden door and his throat didn’t ache from shouting. “It’s fine,” he lied, though it wasn’t really a lie, because when Eren looked at him he honestly didn’t mind. “Your neighbor taught me the secret to breaking in. Hopefully you don’t mind?”

“Neighbor… Oh _shit_ ,” Eren said, eyes going wide. “Annie made you jump the fucking balcony? What the _fuck_ , I gave her a key for this kind of shit.”

Levi blinked. He honestly didn’t know how to respond to that, but he suddenly wasn’t surprised. No wonder the girl had smirked so much. He bit back a sigh at the thought, eyes tracing over Eren’s distressed expression before he decided he didn’t care.

“It’s fine,” he said, leaning forward a little so that their faces were close together. “I don’t mind heights.”

Eren gaped. “You could have _died_ ,” he muttered, looking horrified. “Oh my _god_ , Levi, what the fuck?”

“Well, maybe you shouldn’t nap when I’m on my way over then,” he muttered back. Eren flushed, guilty and sheepish again, but it wasn’t as attractive as the flush in Levi’s head, from arousal, from need and desperation and love. He brought up his hand, the one clutching the beaten up flowers, and dropped the bouquet in Eren’s lap with a little smile, watching as Eren blinked at the bunch of lilies and roses like he’d never seen flowers before in his life.

“Got you flowers,” Levi tried to say, but before he could get past the fl- sound Eren was tangling his fingers in his hair and dragging him over the couch, mouth crashing against his in a sudden, fierce kiss that made him keen. He squirmed as he fell into the other’s lab, feeling the flowers and their delicate petals take even more abuse as his weight crushed them, but when he tried to pull back, panting already, lips tingling, Eren didn’t let him get far.

“You’ll crush the flowers,” Levi muttered, trying to sound angry about it. He knew all he sounded was breathless, though, since he could feel every inch of Eren underneath him, warm and inviting and surprisingly – hard – muscled.

“Don’t care,” Eren muttered back, dragging him even further up his lap to kiss him again. His hands wandered down Levi’s body, fingers digging into his ass to give him a squeeze, and Levi moaned, loud and unrestrained at the onslaught.

“You’ll bother Annie,” Eren muttered, teasing, rolling up to grind against Levi as he knocked the flowers to the floor, utterly forgotten. Levi smirked at the thought, feeling that a little payback was due.

“Don’t care,” he told his boyfriend, grinding back down against him, tangling his own fingers in Eren’s hair as he deliberately mimicked his words. Eren’s laughter was warm and bubbling and brilliant against his mouth, chest rumbling attractively underneath him, and Levi melted against him without another thought.

Fuck wooing, he thought later, in a faint haze as Eren tugged him toward the bedroom with a grin. Who the fuck needed to go slow and careful like a goddamn grandmother trying to drive?

The flowers had still been a good idea, though. A very, very good idea.

**Author's Note:**

> it was like four am last night and i didn't wanna sleep, so i asked my gabe what i should write and he said ereri + flowers, so here we are. 
> 
> i hope you enjoyed!


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